Php 30K Gaming PC Build Guide [Q4 2018]

The goal is to build a low-end gaming setup while trying to keep the cost close to the Php 30,000 budget range. The build guide only includes the System Unit. Remember that this is only a guide and you don’t need to follow it religiously. Please feel free to point out any mistakes and/or suggest what you think can improve the build/s within this price segment.

30K Gaming PC – Total: Php 27,770

CPU

The Intel Core i3-8100 is the perfect processor for this price segment. This 8th generation i3 chip has been extremely improved to stay competitive at this price point against its AMD counterpart. It’s even better than the more expensive 7th generation Intel Core i5-7500 in most cases.

CPU Cooler

The Intel Core i3-8100 comes with a stock cooler and it does the job. Although not immediately nor necessary, I’d suggest investing for a decent cooler like the Deepcool Gammaxx 400 (Php1,090). A CPU cooler will help preserve the CPU’s hardware quality specially in our country’s warm weather.

Motherboard

Here we will be able to choose between two motherboards that would depend on the upgradeability of the build which is entirely up to you.

The H310M is most basic microATX(or mATX is basically what we call the size of the somewhat smaller motherboard) motherboard where you could put the Intel Core i3-8100. It’s the most budget-friendly and that’s it, it’s perfectly just what you need for a “budget build”. It has two RAM slots and if you could foresee that you need more than 16GB in the next five years, then that’s all you need.

A B360M Motherboard is also a microATX board that offers more features such as M.2 slots, some has four RAM slots and maybe more USB ports. If you think you’ll need additional RAM slots for upgrading memory or you think you’ll be able to upgrade to an Intel Core i5-8400 or an Intel Core i7-8700 in the next two years then you should pickup a B360M motherboard. I’m highly against getting a B360M motherboard with only two RAM slots, so make sure to get one with four RAM slots.

The cheapest B360M with four RAM slots is the Asrock B360M Pro 4 while cheapest H310M motherboard is the ECS H310H5-M2.

Memory

We only need to to get two of the cheapest 4GB DDR4 2400 RAM which is the Geil Evo Spear. Don’t even bother getting one with a 2666 memory frequency unless you find one that is cheaper. The difference in performance is barely noticeable and not worth the extra money. If you’re getting a H310M motherboard which only have two RAM slots, you might want to get a single 8GB DDR4 2400 RAM. It could cost you a little bit of performance but it would allow you to upgrade later on without spending more money for a B360M motherboard.

Video Card

Nvidia’s GALAX GTX 1050 Ti OC 4GB is a great value for money video card in this price segment. AMD’s Sapphire RX570 4GB Pulse OC is a lot expensive but is a possible option that comes with AMD freesync.

Storage – HDD

For the storage, we will simply get the most reliable HDD in the market, the Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB.

Storage – SSD

If you don’t have a lot of files or you have other places to store them, and will mostly play esports titles, you might want to skip an HDD and get a Western Digital Caviar Green SSD 240gb SATA. Be warned though, getting an SSD does not really make your system perform better and the only difference in games are loading times. For me an SSD is a luxury and unnecessary for budget builders, still a pretty sweet Quality of Life improvement though.

Power Supply

The Corsair VS450 seems to be the cheapest, reliable power supply that’s appropriate for this build.

Case

As for the case, this should be entirely up to you. For this price range, I would suggest the Tecware Nexus M purely based on its appearance and because it has USB 3.0 (it’s 2018, every USB ports on PC cases should be at least USB 3.0).

This build is capable enough to play popular esports games such as Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch, and CS:GO along with Fortnite, NBA 2K and GTA:V at high to ultra settings at 1080p. It could totally take on current AAA titles such as Far Cry 5 and Destiny 2. Even demanding games such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Battlefield 1 in medium to high graphics settings.